Eight years behind bars for accountant
DISGRACED Cape Town chartered accountant Willem Roux Mouton‚ found guilty last year of defrauding the Eastern Cape Development Corporation in 2012 after stealing R1.3-million meant to boost a small business‚ will spend the next eight years in jail.
Mouton failed to pay back the money as he was ordered to do by the court last year.
After he was found guilty of one count of theft and one count of fraud on October 5 last year‚ the East London Regional Court gave Mouton an ultimatum to pay back the money within a nine-month period or face jail.
The ECDC approached the court this year after he made no payment.
Mouton was sentenced to eight years in jail. The sentence was suspended for five years and was set to commence only if he did not pay back the money.
Mouton was arrested by the Hawks in Cape Town in 2014 following months of investigation by its Commercial Crime Unit.
Mouton’s company had failed to source 255 000 2-litre bottles of blended cooking oil for a company that had secured a R4.5-million loan from the ECDC to supply Weirs Cash and Carry with the oil.
Mouton’s company Wilbur Financial Trust CC was the broker and the party which would source the blended cooking oil for Sayola Global from a supplier.
Sayola is a client of the ECDC and the applicant for the loan. Weirs Cash and Carry was the eventual purchaser of the blended oil from Sayola.
In 2012, Sayola‚ a company owned by Siyabulela Manona and Phumezo Mciteka‚ applied for a loan from the ECDC and R4.595-million was granted to them.
The ECDC made the first payment to Wilbur Financial Trust‚ as the broker. As it was to supply the cooking oil‚ Sayola was required to pay a 30% deposit of R1 319 625.
The ECDC duly paid the money, but Wilbur Financial Trust failed to deliver the cooking oil.
The corporation started demanding its money back in January 2013.